Basketball Junkie

Hi. My name is Andrew, and I'm a basketball junkie. Have been for some time now, and frankly, I've got it bad. All the classic symptoms.

I can be a bit of a discriminating junkie - I'd much rather watch college hoops than the NBA - but when all is said and done, if I need a fix, anything from the Final Four on down to the local high school's freshman squad will do.

During basketball season, it is hard for me to concentrate at work. I find myself staying up later than I should to have just another shot or two of some primo, grade A basketball (although, I'll admit, even some crap'll do if I'm hard-up enough), and the next day at work I'm groggy and disoriented. Hell, there's times I even mainline a half or two before work.

Sometimes, during some really heavy basketball weekends (you know, like any weekend in March), I watch basketball so long and so hard that I'm tired and sore at the end of the day. And then I get up the next day and dig back in with the hair of the dog that bit me.

Back when I first started, I could watch a game, or even half a game in a day, and that would be plenty. Now, there's never enough. I can consume more basketball than any one person in their right mind should want. If I go so much as a night from November to April without getting a little basketball into my system, I get cranky and panicky. When the season ends, I need to go back and watch bits of games here and there in order to get me back in the right space where I can go about my life again.

And basketball can drive a wedge between me and my friends and family. Thanksgiving Day with the family or some early-season tournament? Not even a contest. A weekend away with the wife for Valentine's Day? Sure, I can swing that. Let's just make sure the restaurant we're in has ESPN on up in the corner, eh? And, do there happen to be any college basketball arenas around that area? Hell. I got a birthday in March that just doesn't get celebrated anymore. There's are more important things going on, people.